


Try

by MusicandDancingThroughLife



Series: Shklance Series [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Depression, Established Keith/Shiro (Voltron), Eventual Keith/Lance/Shiro (Voltron), Langst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:47:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23241988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MusicandDancingThroughLife/pseuds/MusicandDancingThroughLife
Summary: Lance is finally growing closer to Keith and Shiro, but their new relationship is tested when Lance finally makes an effort.
Relationships: Keith/Lance/Shiro (Voltron)
Series: Shklance Series [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1640995
Comments: 7
Kudos: 237





	Try

So they thought that they had it in the bag. Maybe that’s where they had really gone wrong, Shiro mused thoughtfully. It was hard to pinpoint the exact moment things had started to maybe fall apart, however. It had been maybe a month since he, Keith, and Lance had begun dating. 

For the first week or so, things went wonderfully. They spent hours with each other, learning more about each other and figuring out how they work together. Their dates were full of laughter, and fun, and – Shiro’s and Keith’s personal favorite – kisses. But then, Keith had gone out of town all week for a music performance and Shiro had found himself drowning in homework. Lance knew they were both stressed, and so he took it upon himself to try and cheer them up. 

His first attack strategy was to call Keith daily to talk to him and find out how things were going in Florida for his performance. He thought Keith maybe sounded off the first couple of times he called, but he didn’t think anything of it until the third day he called. 

“Hey, baby!” Lance wanted to sound anything but happy, but he forced himself to take on a chipper tone. He was lonely, he was tired, and he was disappointed with how his day had gone. He really wished he could just curl up on the couch with Keith and Shiro and binge watch mindless TV shows. 

“How’s Florida? How’re rehearsals and all the performances going? Are you having fun?”

“Lance,” Lance could hear the sigh on the other side of the phone, “I’m really not in the mood, so could you just leave me alone tonight?”

“You’re not up to talking? Um. Okay that’s, that’s fine. I uh, I just had something I needed to tell you really fast.” Lance tried desperately to work his way through his hurt and embarrassment. He knew Keith would be upset if Lance didn’t tell him about being jumped by Sendak’s crew, but he also knew that he was stupid to think that Keith would really want to hear from him. He’d already bothered him twice while he was gone, damn it! Of course, he would be sick of him…

“Look, Lance, I’m really, really not in the mood. Let’s just talk later, okay?”

Lance bit his lip, “But I—”

“Lance! I’m serious, okay! It’s been a long day, I’m exhausted, I haven’t slept in two days, we have practice first thing in the morning, I still have homework to keep up with while I’m out here in this stupid state in the stupid heat and I’m not. In. The. Mood!” The phone beeped, signaling the end of the call.

Keith had hung up on him.

Despite himself, Lance felt tears well up. He hadn’t meant to piss his boyfriend off. He just… Damn he hurt. So much. He curled up on himself, as best he could with bruised ribs and cuts across his shoulders and chest. Moving hurt. Knowing he had upset Keith further hurt. Knowing Keith was hurt, hurt. Knowing there was absolutely nothing he could do to help, besides never bother him again, hurt. But then he remembered Shiro. If Keith didn’t want to know about Lance’s injuries, then fine. Whatever. He still needed to tell Shiro.

But first. Lance needed to peel himself off the floor.

Lance groaned, limping painfully down the corridor to where Shiro’s and Keith’s apartment was. They all stayed in the same dorms, but Keith and Shiro were lucky enough to be roommates, while Lance was down in the hall. His roommate had dropped out of class earlier in the term, so at least he had his own room, but Lance didn’t do so well with isolation. Made it easier to slip into depressive episodes.

He stared at their door, trying to drudge up enough courage to knock. Keith’s words were still ringing in his head, but Lance forced himself to knock, pushing the door open when he was met with silence. 

The room was a disaster zone. Lance would have thought that with Keith being out of town, Shiro would’ve had the apartment a lot neater than it usually was, but instead textbooks and papers were sprawled all over their dining table. There were energy drink cans throughout, along with several pencils and highlighters. Shiro was chewing on one, fingers typing quickly at his laptop, slowing only long enough to gulp down mouthfuls of Red Bull. 

“Uh, Shiro?” Lance ventured. 

Shiro startled, swearing when his drink sloshed and threatened to fall onto the papers he was referring to. Lance winced, barely refraining from taking a step back automatically. He felt his side twinge painfully.

“Lance. What?”

“Um. I just. Wanted to see how you are doing? Haven’t. Uh, haven’t seen you in a while…” Lance trailed off when Shiro gave him a deadpan look, pointedly looking at the mess all around him. “Well, I mean, I just uh, okay, well I needed to talk to you, and I don’t know if you’ve talked to Keith at all today, but, well, anyway, I needed to tell you that I—”

Shiro sighed. “Look, Lance, I already talked to Keith. He’s fine, doing great, having fun. Now if you don’t mind, I’m a little busy here. Three of my professors thought it was okay to assign major papers the same week, and the other two are preparing us for tests next week. I really need to get back to this, okay?” And then without even giving Lance another look – which was a shame because if he had he would’ve noticed the way Lance had gone pale – Shiro turned back to his laptop, fingers returning their frantic typing.

“Oh.” And damn it but Lance hated how small his voice sounded. “Yeah. That’s. That’s fine. Got it. I’ll. I’ll leave you alone now. Sorry,” Lance found himself whispering the last word as he slowly backed out of the apartment. 

He barely managed to make it back to his room, legs trembling with the effort – he really should’ve taken a closer look at the bruises on his thighs – and slid down the wall, hunching over his knees, shielding his head, hiding his tears. His stomach and chest protested, his legs didn’t want to support the position either, but he was so done. He was an idiot for thinking that their relationship would last forever. Sure, it had been nice while it lasted, but it had to fall apart eventually, right? 

Whatever. He was used to taking care of himself. He could do it again.

Still, after he finished clumsily dressing and bandaging his own injuries, Lance downed a pint of ice cream and then hid under his covers, where he remained all the next day.

Now, it was the last day before Keith came back to them. Shiro was overjoyed to find that this last week was almost over. It had been a hellish week, but he knew that once Keith was back with them, things would be perfect again. He couldn’t wait to snuggle under a mountain of blankets for a movie marathon with both of his favorite boys. But of course, things couldn’t be quite that simple.

Shiro had had to go by himself to pick up Keith. Both he and Lance had been there to drop him off, but when he had texted Lance to ask if he wanted to come, too, the kid hadn’t responded at all. Which was unusual, but Shiro knew that Lance usually had class around that time, so he hadn’t thought too much of it. It wasn’t until Keith all but hurled himself through the crowd, desperately seeking out Lance and himself, that Shiro realized there might be more to it.

“Shiro, where is he? Where’s Lance?!” 

“Calm down, Keith,” Shiro grasped Keith’s shoulders, trying to calm him down, “he’s fine. He just has class.”

“Shiro, no, you don’t get it! Shit, have you talked to him at all?” Shiro paused, withdrawing momentarily before responding.

“…no. But I’m sure he’s fine. We’ll go check on him now, all right?”

“Shiro!” Hell, was Keith about to start crying? “I messed up, I ruined it, I’m so sorry I didn’t mean it! And you had your essays and everything and you were super stressed so I couldn’t bother you and Lance wasn’t answering his phone anymore and, and. I just. I’m sorry.” 

Now seriously alarmed, Shiro tugged Keith into his arms. Keith went willingly, tucking his face into Shiro’s neck to hide the fact that he was openly sobbing at this point. Shiro rubbed his hands up and down Keith’s back, his sides, gently cradled the back of his head, whispering soft words the whole while. “C’mon, let’s get out of here. We can talk about it on our way back home.”

It turned out not only had Keith snapped at Lance, when Lance apparently had something he needed to tell him, but that ten minutes after, when Keith had realized exactly what he had done and attempted to call him back in a panic, Lance hadn’t picked up. Nor had he responded to any of the texts Keith had sent, or the next 6 phone calls. 

Instead, Keith had gotten a text from Lotor, a kid in a few of their classes who was rumored to be the actual leader of Sendak’s group, though no one had managed to prove that yet. All the text read was ‘Would have thought Little Boy Blue would’ve been harder to break with you and The Champion protecting him. I’m almost disappointed to see I was wrong.’ And okay, yeah, now Shiro was worried. What had happened to their Lance?


End file.
